Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg: $845 million a year

Apr. 30, 2013
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"The blunt truth is that men still run the world," says Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook. Her new book, "Lean In," is stirring a new debate about equality in the workplace. / David Paul Morris, Bloomberg

by Gary Strauss, USA TODAY @garybstrauss

by Gary Strauss, USA TODAY @garybstrauss

Seems like the whole world knows Mark Zuckerberg got $2.3 billion after Facebook went public last May. Turns out Sheryl Sandberg, an executive he lured away from Internet giant Google, did pretty well, too.

Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, gained $821 million from shares that vested in 2012 and received another $25.6 million in stock, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook said in a late Friday proxy filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. That's on top of a $328,000 salary and $277,000 bonus.

Sandberg, 43, has been COO since March 2008 and previously was vice president for global sales at Mountain View, Calif.-based Google. The 2012 stock gains and compensation package vaulted Sandberg to the top of an almost all-male club of highly compensated executives. She co-authored the recently published best seller Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.

Top executives have been earning hefty take-home pay for as long as there have been public companies. Last year, one of the biggest compensation packages went to outgoing IBM CEO Sam Palmisano. The 61-year-old received about $170 million, but most of that came after a 31-year career at Big Blue, and it included $76 million in deferred pay, $66 million in stock and a $29.7 million pension.

The hoodie-wearing, 28-year-old Zuckerberg cashed in stock options for a gain of nearly $2.3 billion last year and now faces nearly $1 billion in taxes to the IRS. Zuckerberg received the options -- priced at 6 cents apiece -- in 2005, about a year after he co-founded what would became the world's biggest social media site while attending Harvard University.

Many investors who got in early are still waiting for their value of their shares to pop. Facebook's highly anticipated initial public offering debuted in May at $38 a share. The stock briefly touched $45 when it began trading May 18, but fell to $17.55 within weeks. Friday's close: $26.85.

Zuckerberg's 2013 salary will be just $1 and he will receive no equity awards, Facebook said. Last year, he received $503,000 in salary and a $266,000 bonus, plus perks valued at $1.2 million, mostly for personal use of company aircraft and security service.

Among other big Facebook winners: CFO David Ebersman, who received a stock award valued at $17 million and gained $102 million from previously awarded shares that vested last year; and vice president Mike Schroepfer; who received stock valued at $20.2 million and gained over $75 million from vested shares and exercising stock options.